Tags: Ben Bernanke

So what’s a Peeping Tom, anti-democratic, Constitution-trampling intelligence crony to do after leaving decades of “public service?” Move into the private sector and collect a fat paycheck from Wall Street, naturally. Following in the footsteps of some of the other top tier public sector cronies looking to cash out after doing their best to destroy the Republic, such as Banana Ben Bernanke collecting $250,000 per speech and Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner hopping over to private equity giantWarburg Pincus, Mr. Alexander is in good crooked company.

So what is Mr. Alexander charging for his expertise? He’s looking for $1 million per month. Yes, you read that right. That’s the rate that his firm, IronNet Cybersecurity Inc., pitched to Wall Street’s largest lobbying group the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), which ultimately negotiated it down to a mere $600,000 a month. In case you need a refresher on how much of a slimy character this guy is, I suggest you read the following posts:

Ben Bernanke isn’t wasting any time cashing in on what might be the greatest transfer of wealth in history from 99.9% of the world’s population to a handful of connected oligarchs and their political minions. Cronyism does indeed pay well, even if bureaucrats have to wait until they leave office to collect.

The Bernank isn’t wasting any time ringing the register.

From Reuters:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank could have done more to fight the country’s financial crisis and that he struggled to find the right way to communicate with markets.

“We could have done some things on the margin to mitigate somewhat the crisis,” Bernanke, 60, said on Tuesday in his first public speaking engagement since he stepped down in January after eight years heading the Fed.

“Although we have been very aggressive, I think on the monetary policy front we could have been even more aggressive.”

“This is going to sound very obvious but the first thing we learned is that the U.S. is not invulnerable to financial crises,” Bernanke said.

Um, so you thought it was? Never forget that these are the clowns running the show.

Bernanke said he could now speak more freely about the crisis than he could while at the Fed – “I can say whatever I want” – and in remarks to over 1,000 bankers and financial professionals in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, he made clear that he had regrets.

Bernanke received at least $250,000 for his appearance at the financial conference staged by National Bank of Abu Dhabi NBAD.AD, the UAE’s largest bank, according to sources familiar the matter. NBAD did not announce the fee.

“We’re supposed to oversee a sprawling and complicated financial system and huge banks — all the while making sure we don’t implement policy that hurts the economy — and we can’t even properly manage ourselves,” said one Fed official who helps develop regulatory policy. “How can we be trusted to supervise the system when the Fed can barely supervise its own staff?”

My readers know that not only do I not trust the Federal Reserve, but I think it is one of the most dangerous and immoral institutions operating in America today. It’s not about particular individuals that I think need to be replaced (although Larry Summers will be an absolute nightmare), it is that I do not think any institution should ever have the power to credit unlimited currency and credit and distribute it at will to whoever they want with very little oversight. While I don’t write about the Fed as much as I used to, I suggest you go back and reread my 2011 article: Why Fiat Money is Immoral.

The Huffington Post article highlighted here is full of disturbing survey results, which without question demonstrate that the most powerful institution in the U.S. is completely dysfunctional. There are some other hidden nuggets in there as well. Such as this:

The Fed refused to make public a broader set of survey results that would allow for a comparison between the policy unit and other sections inside the banking supervision and regulation division.

Stier, whose group doesn’t have access to the Fed’s survey results because the law that calls for government employee surveys doesn’t apply to the Fed, said he was disappointed in the survey results. He praised the Fed for conducting the survey. “You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” he said.

Wait a minute. Why does the law the applies to government employee surveys not apply to the Fed? It is because the Federal Reserve is not a government agency but rather a private bank? You’d think the Huff Post would’ve dug into that bizarre angle a little deeper. Kind of important.

Or what about this:

Several top regulators at the Fed’s headquarters in Washington who helped combat the financial crisis have since left, many for lucrative positions either at leading banks or at consultancies that work for banks. Current regulators fear experienced staffers will continue to leave the Fed for the financial services industry, depriving the regulator of key experience as it finalizes several post-crisis measures and sets about gauging banks’ compliance with new rules.

Hey guys, thanks for all the bailouts, now come work for us. Shameless, disgusting, unacceptable.

More from the Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — Regulators overseeing the nation’s largest financial institutions are distrustful of their bosses, afraid to speak out, and feeling isolated, according to a confidential survey this year of Federal Reserve employees.

The findings from the April survey of roughly 400 employees, presented to Fed staff during multiple meetings in June and July and obtained by The Huffington Post, show a workforce that is demoralized, and an institution where teamwork is nonexistent, innovation and creativity are discouraged and employees feel underutilized.

An overwhelming majority of Fed regulators are proud to work at the central bank and believe in its mission of supervising the financial system and ensuring stability. They also trust and have good relationships with their immediate supervisors. But most say that top leaders are failing the organization, in part by not communicating honestly, and that employees are in the wrong jobs, or are poorly managed.

About a third of workers surveyed in the policy unit agreed that it was “safe to speak up and constructively challenge things around here,” documents show.

“That tells me you don’t have the culture of debate and engagement that you need so that questions are asked,” said Angelides.

About a third of workers surveyed in the policy unit agreed that it was “safe to speak up and constructively challenge things around here,” documents show.

“That tells me you don’t have the culture of debate and engagement that you need so that questions are asked,” said Angelides.

Just about half, or 51 percent, of policy employees agreed with the statement: “I trust the senior leaders of this organization.” Fifty-six percent of the entire banking supervision and regulation division felt the same way.

Less than half of workers in the Fed policy unit agreed that the unit’s senior leaders “act in alignment with our organization’s core values or guiding principles.” Fewer than 40 percent said they are encouraged to be creative and innovative.

What?! Someone get the Bernanke on the line ASAP! Apparently the remaining 19% of Americans work at TBTF banks and the Federal Reserve. From Rasmussen:

Most adults continue to say they are paying more for groceries than they were a year ago, and they expect that amount to be even higher next year.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 81% of American Adults are paying more for groceries than they were a year ago, down from 86% in March but generally in line with previous findings. Just 12% say their grocery bills are no higher than they were last year.

It’s interesting that even after adjusting for fake tuna and horse meat, prices are still climbing. These Americans are clearly conspiracy theorists (if you want to know whether you are one or not click here), everyone knows there is no inflation and that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

Coming off the heels of a fantastic performance in recent local elections, the UKIP under the leadership of Nigel Farage continues to make waves in both the UK and the Continent itself. In this case, I refer to a recent powerful performance at the European Parliament courtesy of Godfrey Bloom (UKIP), member of the European Parliament.

For many years, I have stated that Ben Bernanke was and is committing crimes against humanity, and would one day stand trial much like the war criminals at Nuremberg. It appears I am no longer alone in echoing such sentiments, as Mr. Bloom has just done so before the European Parliament.

I once said that Nigel Farage is Category 5 political hurricane. That hurricane has landed.

I haven’t written anything about the markets in a very long time due to the experience in extreme boredom that they have become as of late. The election came and went and now that we are just ahead of the Holiday Season the apathy has hit monumental proportions. More significantly, what was the point of doing anything ahead of today’s Fed meeting? There wasn’t any and so nobody did.

Now that the announcement is out, I think in retrospect today will turn out to be a meaningful turning point. Not so much because of what they said, but because of where certain markets are and because of what they didn’t say. Let’s start with the latter point.

From the statement, we found out that the Fed is set to launch an unsterilized buying program of $85 billion per month ($40 billion in mortgage backed securities and $45 billion in treasuries). This part was widely flagged already. The more interesting part is the language in the text discussing how the Fed will essentially link their low rates to unemployment, with 6.5% being the threshold.

This is all within a text that attempts to portray a very benign and healthy economy, one described as having an improving labor market, a housing recovery and anchored inflation expectations. Sounds pretty good to me; so then why accelerate the aggressiveness of their radical money printing policy?

The answer is that the Fed realizes its policies haven’t worked and are convinced they need to do more and more to prove an academic point that man is indeed more powerful than nature. At first, they said a stock market rally would set a fire under the economy. That hasn’t worked. Then they said a new housing recovery would do it. Once again, nein. So now their answer is just print money like crazy and eventually it will work. Yes, they are insane, but we already knew that didn’t we.

Actions always speak louder than words and their actions demonstrate a deep concern for the real economy and an unspoken understanding that things are not going well underneath the layers of propaganda.

Now onto the second point. I think today will mark an important turning point in the markets not just because of what I wrote above, but because of where things stand.

So I was dead wrong about what the Fed would do in the video blog that I put out last night. I did not expect them to expand their balance sheet with asset prices as high as they are and the economy supposedly growing. This is THE signal I have been waiting for (and the spark that I mentioned in my recent GoldMoney interview) to be sure that this latest rally in the precious metals is the real deal and that new highs are in the cards.

It doesn’t take long to realize how bullish this is for gold and silver. Everyone I know has been waiting for new QE to really make serious changes and now we have it. This action will lead to two questions being asked by investors. First, if the economy is recovering why do this? Second, if they are doing this now what do you think they will be forced to do when things get worse?

The elephants of capital will now move and the ground will start to shake. The one asset class I think should suffer the most from this is credit. Yield will not be en vogue in the inflation that is coming.

From the Fed statement:

If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the Committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability.

Since nothing else moves the markets these days besides the utterances of insane Central Planners armed with printing presses, I figured it would be a good idea to preview tomorrow’s Fed decision. I find the setup particularly interesting since the consensus seems to be expecting QE3 and I do not. Have a watch!

If you haven’t been to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah I highly suggest you put it on your list. It is truly one of the most spectacular places I have been in the United States and I spent six weeks driving around the country in the summer of 2010. That said, I suggest not coming in July when the average high is 100 degrees!

So in the park there is a structure called “Balanced Rock,” which is giant boulder that seemingly defies gravity. In any event, the picture I took of it very much reminded me of the current state of the financial system. Although, of course, this rock will still be standing far after Bernanke’s ponzi party has blown itself to smithereens. Likely within 3-6 months after the U.S. Presidential election on November 6, if they can keep it going another three and a half months. Hope you enjoy the photo!